R - Jargon Buster

Racking: Decanting clear juice or wine from above the sediment in a tank. This is the easiest method for getting rid of solids that have settled to the bottom in a tank. Wine tanks commonly have a built-in "racking valve" placed 20 inches (~half a meter) above the bottom valve for use in racking wines during production.

Reims: (pronounced "ranss") Beautiful cathedral city in northeastern France. Along with the town of Epernay, Reims is the centre of the Champagne region.

Residual sugar (R.S.): Term commonly used in wine analysis referring to the content of unfermented sugar in a wine already bottled.

Reverse Osmosis: A membrane-technology filtration method that removes many types of large molecules and ions from wine.

Rhine: famous Wine River in Germany. The common name given to all German wines produced from vineyards near the Rhine River.

Rhone: A major river in south-eastern France, flowing from Switzerland to the Mediterranean. The name is commonly given to all the wines produced from vineyards along the river.

Riddling: Process of moving sediment from the base of a bottle to the cork for removal, used in Champagne.

Riesling: A shortened name for the wine variety "White Riesling;" see Johannisburg Riesling.

Rioja: (re-ó-ha) Spain's best and most well known region for table wine production. Located just south of the Pyrenees Mountains on the French border with Spain.

Rosé: French word for pink wine, the word is in common use all over the world.